Most people have a fear of speaking in public, but when tasked to give an effective presentation by power point they feel a little more at ease. The reason is that they now have the information they are going to present at hand. This can be a double edge sword because the presenter in this scenario will end up using the slides as a crutch and may actually fail as a true presenter.

Giving an effective Power Point presentation involves much more than just showing and telling with slides. Most people will have a canned power point with all sorts of information on the slides then merely present the slides in a progressive manner like they would their slide show form last summers’ vacation. First of all to come off with an effective presentation you need to understand that you the speaker is the focal point of the presentation. Your audience should have their attention on you as a speaker and the slides are just supplemental. Secondly to be successful and have the right impact on the audience Power Point starts with the actual design so that the audience will not be reading the slides instead of looking at the presenter. For example; Slides should have a dark background and light type which is the protocol these days, this makes the slides easy to see and follow.

Here are some further points and rules to follow for an effective presentation:

There should be no more than six words across with only six lines of copy or words.

You should not have any animation as it will distract the audience especially if the presentation is a little dry.

Pictures or illustrations only if necessary. Logos should be placed at very bottom corner.

Limit your colors to three only! Red for impact, Blue and Green for positive

Use clear concise copy w/ bullets instead of long sentences

Narrow your points to three or a maximum of 5 at the most

Reveal each point one by one as to not have the audience read ahead.

The mission of giving a successful Power Point presentation only to use your slides as an aid NOT as the presentation itself. You should know your material very well before your presentation so that your slides will only serve as a marquee for the audience as to what is coming up next. Your slides can also help you get back on track or remember where you are going in case you lose your thoughts. You come off as authentic and genuine to your audience when you are less dependent on your slides. If you can understand that giving a Power Point requires a unique blend of discipline whereas you the presenter are the focal point and the slides are merely an appendage you will be able to give an extremely effective presentation.